The state Board of Education on Wednesday gave final approval to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, a roadmap that will outline what skills students should learn in each grade level.

"It won't be substantially different," said Mark Biedron, president of the state board. "We looked at everything to make sure that it was crystal clear, age appropriate. Yes, there were some changes, but there were not major changes."

New Jersey will maintain about 84 percent of the 1,427 math and language arts standards that make up Common Core, according to the state. About 230 standards will be modified.

Some of those changes will result in moving a standard -- like when students should be able to distinguish long and short vowels -- from one grade level to another. Others involve minor changes to the wording of a standard to clarify or enhance it, according to the state.

The new standards will go into effect in New Jersey schools beginning in the 2017-18 school year.

"I think I can safely say that New Jersey has the best standards in the country," state Education Commissioner David Hespe said after the board adopted the new standards. "I'm proud of the work that we did over the past year."

New Jersey in 2010 was among the first of more than 40 states to adopt and then implement Common Core. The standards, developed by the National Governors Association, place a greater emphasis on a student's analytical skills and emphasize problem-solving and critical thinking.

After initially supporting Common Core, Christie last May announced plans to review and potentially replace the standards with new ones developed in New Jersey.

"Instead of solving problems in our classrooms, it is creating new ones," Christie said, citing confusion among parents and a lack of support from teachers.

The shift was widely perceived as a political tactic in advance of Christie's presidential bid, and Christie often touted his decision on the campaign trail.

"New Jersey looked at it... pretty much every word," Biedron said. "We all agreed that the changes we made plus what was already there now is ours."

The New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, agreed that the standards needed to be reviewed, said Marie Blistan, the union's vice president. But more changes could have been made, she said.

"I do believe that there is some more work that needs to be done," Blistan said. "Just changing the name to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, that's not the catch all."